Pleasure-railway.



LA MARCUS A. THOMPSON. PLEASURE RAILWAY.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 1, 1913.

1,070,208, Patented Aug. 12, 1913.

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"UNITED STATES PATENT orricn.

LA MARCUS A. THOMPSON, OF NEW YOEK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR TO THE L. A. THOMPSON SCENIC RAILWAY COMPANY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

PLEASURE-RAILWAY.

Original application filed February 21, 1-913, Serial No. 749,805.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, LA Marcos A. THOMP- SON, a citizen of the United States, residing at New York city, county of New York, and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Pleasure- Railways, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, which form a part of this specification.

The object of my invention is to provide a new and improved construction of car especially applicable for pleasure railways.

More specifically the objects are to simplifv the mounting of the car upon its truck to allow for ready mounting and dismounting, and to enable the car, or a series of such cars arranged as a train, to be operated with a maximum of safety.

As is well known, the road bed of an ordinary pleasure railway is very undulating and irregular, being purposely provided with excessively steep grades and sharp curves so as to afford the excitement and thrills which are the chief inducement for the patronage of the public. These features, studiously avoided by ordinary passenger railroads because of their manifest danger, must necessarily be preserved in pleasure railways. Naturally, serious accidents have occurred from time to time. The danger of accident is enhanced in that type of pleasure railways known as the racing coaster. The usual methods of connecting together the several cars of a train is also unsatisfactory, in that there is pronounced racking of the cars back and forth, up and down, and side wise, resulting in excessive wear and tear on the cars, abnormal strain on the mechanism connecting the cars, and danger of the cars becoming separated or derailed.

In an application filed by me February 21, 1913, Serial No. 7&9,805, of which this application is a division, I have set forth certain construct-ions adapted to overcome these dangers and discomforts, the same including the subject matter of the present invention and also a certain construction for connecting together the cars of a train, which latter construction is therein claimed and which forms no part of the present invention, which is restricted to the construction of the car and its relation to the road bed, as hereinafter set forth.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 12,1913.

Divided and this application filed April 1,

Serial No. 758,132.

In the drawings: Figure 1 is a cross-sectional view of car and road bed; Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the car.

The car body a is mounted. on the car truck 5 carrying the wheels 0. The rails (Z are secured to the road bed 6, at the sides of Wl11Cl1 are uprights f and reinforcing braces g which hold securely in position the longitudinally extending side guides h. Horizontal rollers 71 are carried on the side pieces in of each car body and are adapted, in case of abnormal tilting of the car sidewise, to contact with the side guides 71.

The floor j of the car is raised some distance above the lower edges of the side pieces 70 of the car body, and the longitudinal bolsters of the truck Z) are spaced such a distance apart that the car body may be placed on the truck so that the floor 7 will rest on the bolsters while the side pieces k abut against the outer faces of the bolsters. The floor is then secured to the bolsters by bolts. This construction permits the car body to be readily placed upon, or removed from, the truck.

In pleasure railways as heretofore constructed the flanges of the running wheels have been placed inside the treadfollowing the usual method in the construction of all vehicles designed to run on tracks. I have, however, placed the flanges on the outside of the tread, as shown in Fig. 1. I am aware that this is not broadly new, but when combined with side guides arranged along opposite sides of the track adapted to be engaged by rollers carried by the car, the elements cooperate to perform a new and important function namely, the absolute prevention of derailment.

In Fig. 1, I have assumed that the car, while passing around a curve at high speed (say to the left) tends to lurch, throwing the pressure of the car to the right, causing the inside wheels to lift. Under these conditions, assuming the wheel flanges to be on the inside of the treads, there is grave danger that the side pressure between the sideguides h and rollers 2' will shove the wheels off the track. This will almost inevitably occur if the inside wheels lift sufficiently to clear the rail, as there is then nothing to prevent the right hand wheels from slipping off the rail due to the pressure above. Derailments due to this cause have, in fact,

occurred, resulting in fatalities. lVith the flanges on the outside of the wheel treads, however, assuming the conditions otherwise to be the same as above detailed, the outer flanges on the wheels at the right-hand side of the car will absolutely prevent the car from being pushed to the left, no matter to what height the left-hand wheels rise; and derailment from this cause is impossible.

The specific mechanism in which my invention is embodied in the construction shown and described, while exhibiting the preferred embodiment of my invention, may be modified, within the limits defined by the claims, without departing from my invention. Having now fully described my invention, what I claim and desire to protect by Let ters Patent is:

1. In a pleasure railway, the combination with a car truck having longitudinally extending side reaches, of a car body comprising a floor of approximately the width of the distance between the outer edges of opposite side reaches and sides extending below the floor and adapted to extend along the outer faces of the side reaches when the car body is placed upon the truck.

2. In a pleasure railway, the combination with track rails and side pieces extending along the track, of a car, rollers on the car mounted on an upright axis and adapted when the car tilts to a pronounced degree to engage the side pieces, and wheels on "which the car is mounted, said wheels having each a tread and a side flange on the outside thereof adapted to extend along the out side of the head of the corresponding rail.

In testimony of which invention, I have hereunto set my hand, at New York, N. Y., on this 28th day of March, 1913.

LA MARCUS A. THOMPSON.

lVitnesses A. M. BABER, A. G. BLACKMAN.

Copies of this patent may be obtained. for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, I). C. 

